#and amelia is still full of energy and adrenaline and can’t stop racing around the tardis like a hyperactive gerbil. because if she stops

[quietwingsinthesky]

in the amelia pond au, amelia’s aunt does still send her to therapy between doctor adventures, but since amelia is now secure in the fact that he’s Definitely Real since both rory and mels have also met him and because she lost a tooth last week from tripping on the stairs of the tardis, she doesn’t bite any therapists this time around. and besides, her therapist is a very funny lady. she reminds amelia of her doctor, with how her voice will flip and jump in volume and accent and tone on a whim, with how she’ll talk to amelia like they’re conspiring together. she keeps the pictures amelia draws of the doctor and their adventures for her, even hangs one or two on the walls. she listens very intently to every detail, which no adults in amelia’s life do save the doctor himself and river song, whenever she’s around. and best of all, whenever she tells amelia’s aunt that amelia is doing just fine, don’t you worry, she’ll grow out of this, she winks at amelia so that amelia will know her therapist is only playing along to wave away her aunt’s suspicion.

it is a little odd, though, that she insists on only being called Missy. but amelia is quite used to odd by now.

[darkestdawnhq]

LUCINDA TALKALOT is a 23 year old MUGGLEBORN, a former SLYTHERIN, and a WAITRESS who is a CIVILIAN and uses SHE/HER pronouns. They are categorized as CODE FOUR. They are currently CLOSED.

The loud crack of a red leather ball | The wind licking through your tight braids | Getting giddy on chocolate frogs | Standing on the tips of your toes to seem taller | Bruised knees and cuts upon your cheek | You’ve fought snakes all your life | You were raised a fighter, and a fighter you will be.

HISTORY.

Lucinda was always too much. That was what her mother said, at least. She was the youngest of five and from the moment she was born she disrupted the careful balance of the Talkalot household. She was too loud and too competitive. Lucinda was always the first sibling to resort to violence: scratching and biting and kicking. She was the one who fell out of a tree and broke her wrist on her mother’s birthday, the one suspended from school for getting into a fight on sports day (Ben Wickham shouldn’t have cheated in the egg and spoon race), the one who made herself sick at the chocolate fountain at her aunt’s wedding. Her family loved her, sure, but they didn’t know how to manage her. They almost felt reassured when her Hogwarts letter arrived – an explanation for her wildness.

Hogwarts was a new world for Lucinda, but not entirely unfamiliar. At home, she’d had to claw and fight for every scrap of attention. In her muggle school, she’d had to work harder than the other girls to do well in class - she’d always found it hard to focus. Lucinda had been proud at first, of being a Slytherin. Ambitious. Resourceful. Natural leaders. Yes, that sounded right, she’d thought, as she sat at the feast her first night at Hogwarts. She could make her house proud. It did not take long for the honeymoon to end, for an innocent question about her family to highlight just how out of place she was in her house.

It was on her first broom that Lucinda finally felt right. It made sense to her. She had always loved sports. She had played hockey, tennis, gone swimming, an outlet for her endless energy. Yet nothing she had done before compared. It felt ridiculous to call them sports when Quidditch existed. Nothing had ever come so easy to her. Nothing had ever satisfied her adrenaline-junkie tendencies in quite the same way. She was a seeker; fast and graceful. On the Quidditch pitch, her Slytherin teammates didn’t care that she was a muggleborn once she was winning them matches. Among the other houses, she quickly found friendships. Lucinda was loosely popular. She enjoyed her social status, liked that her classmates thought well of her. She was never unkind, never a gossipmonger, but she never quite managed nice. She was loud, honest, all sharp edges and bruising sincerity.

During the summers, her family life settled. Her time away during the year made home easier. She inevitably grew restless by September, but the constant fighting faded into good natured bickering, and she grew closer to her siblings. While at Hogwarts, Lucinda’s life worked. At school, she was a restless, sharp-tongued sports star. At home, just one more piece of the chaos. She managed the toxic environment in Slytherin house by keeping her family to herself and facing any conflict head on with all the tools available to her, her fists and her words and her wand.

The Falmouth Falcons scouted her in her 6th year, and she trialled for them that summer. She was a school celebrity in her final year, the one who was going to be a Quidditch pro. That same year, the war came to her attention. Growing tensions played out across the front page of the Daily Prophet and Lucinda cancelled her subscription. She got her friends to tear out the Quidditch section and they didn’t ask questions. She focused on the things within her control: sport, friends, romantic flings. Anything but the war – or her NEWTS.

Armed with her mediocre grades, Lucinda graduated and moved smoothly into the ranks of the Falcons. She fit in easily among the big personalities of the Quidditch world and made firm friends as well as a handful of foes – relatively simple sports rivalries and blood-purity fueled enmity alike. Those first years after school she came into unimaginable success. In 1978, she played for England in the Quidditch world cup, all the way to the semi-finals. She had only been professional for a year, and she had sworn up and down that she would go all the way in 1982. She had a career ahead of her and felt no disappointment at the loss: in four years they would try again, and she would be ready. She did her best to focus on the future, to ignore her growing anxiety about the chaos mounting around and focus on honing her talents.

The world came crashing down around her when the Quidditch season was suspended in the autumn of 1979. The wages kept coming in, for a while at least, but her days were empty. Lucinda had never known how to sit still, and she couldn’t bear to then, either. Around her, the world was falling apart and what had she done to stop it? She had felt like a coward, as if she had betrayed the little girl who had picked a fight for every little injustice in the world, the little girl who knew innately what fair meant. It was Amelia Bones, who brought her into the Order and gave her an outlet for her shame and her anger. She was surprised to find she had several friends among their number already. Lucinda did what she could to support their efforts without drawing too much attention. The headlines on the Daily Prophet brought her nightmares – people missing, people found dead, found tortured. Some muggleborns had their whole families murdered. How could she visit that risk on her mother? On her five siblings and her growing mess of nieces and nephews?

Lucinda joined the war as everything went into decline. Grief began to layer on top of grief. Alice. James. Moody. All the terror, and the infighting. Shacklebolt declared the Order finished but Lucinda was already halfway out the door. She was distraught, the day she’d shown up at the Broomsticks and Thea Rosmerta had taken her under her wing.  Lucinda opened up to Thea, a source of sound advice and endless empathy – though she kept her history with the Order to herself. She drowned her misery, ignored most of her friends and read the newspapers with resignation. The violent transition of power felt as though it lasted an eternity, and all she could do was await her sentence.

When Barty Crouch Jr. arrived to hand deliver her fate, sealed in its little envelope, she barely contained her surprise. Code Four. In some ways – a relief. Her past remained a secret. In others, it was unbearable. Crouch was sure to mention the most painful consequence of her new, lesser status: no more Quidditch. Lucinda had held her tongue as fresh anger coursed through her. His delivery felt like an admission: she was a threat. She had always been a threat.

Now, Lucinda is in careful retreat. Thea offered her work at the Three Broomsticks, and she makes a living – though customer service is not her calling. She keeps Remus safe on the full moon, a quiet act of treachery. She avoids her family to keep away unwanted attention. Mostly, she waits. Lucinda wants her freedom back, and she will do anything necessary to get it.

CONNECTIONS.

REMUS LUPIN: Friend. You remember Remus at Hogwarts, it didn’t matter that they were in different years because everybody knew the four mischievous boys of Gryffindor. But it wasn’t until you were both fighting the same battle that the two actually spoke. Now Lucinda sees the ‘Wanted’ posters they’ve tacked all over wizarding London and you can’t help but cringe. The secret he’s kept all this time, plastered in black ink. Lucinda’s never known a werewolf before but you know Remus. He was always kind to you, so now you’ve made it your mission to help him. Books and a safe place to change, it’s not a lot but it’s all you can offer for now. 

THEA ROSMERTA: Mentor. Your world fell apart when they took quidditch away from you. Thea had been there to listen, she didn’t know what it was but she felt like she could trust the older witch. Since that first night, Thea’s become a regular ear for her to vent to. Lucinda’s calmed down enough that she’s started to make a plan of action to take back the love of her life. She knows that her plans aren’t strictly...legal, and Thea has already been such a help and a small kindness in this world that she doesn’t want to bring trouble to your doors. It’s a secret you’ll have to keep to yourself for now.

BARTY CROUCH JR: Adversary. It’s the Ludo Bagman’s and the Barty Crouch Jr’s of the world that took away the very thing that you love. Barty was the one who delivered the letter to you himself. It was practically a slap to Lucinda’s face. She was no longer able to play quidditch professionally, her code was too high. She knew what they’d meant, muggleborns couldn’t play Quidditch. What did one’s blood say about their Quidditch abilities? She’s certainly seen Barty Crouch Jr on a broomstick and there’s not a lot that his blood has done to help his abilities, that’s for sure. Lucinda’s starting to get the feeling that Barty’s watching her. It’s made her paranoid to the core, especially with the werewolf she’s harbouring once a month. She’s adamant that he wont let him scare her into submission. 

AMELIA BONES: Friend. Despite the age difference, Amelia and Lucinda had bonded over two things: Quidditch and their mutual dislike of Ludo Bagman. It was Amelia who, in those directionless days of 1979 had brought Lucinda to the Order. Now? They haven’t spoken in months. Lucinda frets that Amelia, with her fierce moral compass, feels betrayed by her. The guilt that hangs over her – that she didn’t do enough, isn’t doing enough – has come to be personified by Amelia. Lucinda wants forgiveness. She’s just never been very good at saying sorry.

Currently portrayed by ALISHA BOE